ICANN under scrutiny?

[Carlos A. Afonso]

Translation, as I see it: new gtld policy will be diktated (k
intentional) by the United States government. What is new?

--c.a.

Konstantinos Komaitis wrote:
> http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090916_9990.php
>
> Republican lawmakers want answers from ICANN
> BY ANDREW NOYES, CONGRESSDAILY 09/16/2009
> Two of the House Judiciary Committee's top Republicans wrote to the new head
> of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on Tuesday to
> express concerns about the proposed introduction of many new top-level
> domains -- such as .biz, .info, and .us -- and the expiration later this
> month of a memo formally joining the Commerce Department and the
> California-based entity that administers the world's Web addresses.
>
> In their letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, Judiciary ranking member Lamar
> Smith and Courts and Competition Subcommittee ranking member Howard Coble,
> R-N.C., said they are worried that a vast expansion of domains will carry
> "serious negative consequences" for U.S. businesses and consumers. The U.S.
> Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and others have
> complained that adding hundreds of new domains could exacerbate
> cyber-squatting, fraud, and overall confusion in the Internet marketplace.
>
> Smith and Coble said the absence of price caps in the new registry deals
> could mean that legitimate businesses could be discriminated against and
> asked to pay a premium for each domain they register or renew. ICANN, which
> has said it plans to begin accepting applications for new domains in early
> 2010, could bring in an initial $90 million from the plan, according to some
> estimates. The letter argued the only economic justification put forth so
> far is an ICANN-commissioned report that has been criticized for failing to
> include empirical data to support of its claim that the project will benefit
> consumers.
>
> Given the late consideration of intellectual property concerns and ICANN's
> "less than stellar track record," Smith and Coble said they have "serious
> misgivings" about the scheduled expiration later this month of a joint
> project agreement between the U.S. government and ICANN. ICANN leaders have
> claimed that, after 10 years in business, the nonprofit is ready for its
> independence but a number of lawmakers -- Democrats and Republicans alike --
> aren't so sure. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and
> Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., last month called
> for the creation of a permanent relationship.
>
> Smith and Coble ask Beckstrom to provide detailed answers by Sept. 22 to
> several questions about the domain name expansion and the termination of the
> joint project agreement.
>
> Proponents of the domain name expansion take a different view. Richard
> Tindal, senior vice president of registry at eNom, argues that new domains
> will be safer space for trademarks. As part of the proposed process,
> safeguards are being built into the registry selection process and the
> registry/registrar contracts. Additionally, ICANN is likely to adopt
> significant portions of the recommendations for trademark protections
> offered by a committee of trademark experts, he said.
>
> Tindal claims the amount of traffic and cyber-squatting won't increase
> significantly with new domains and could actually decrease. "There is only
> so much Internet traffic and so many cyber-squatter dollars available at any
> given point in time. Doubling the number of [domains] will not double the
> amount of cyber-squatting," he said. Furthermore, the recent introduction of
> country code top-level domains and vanity names (e.g. Facebook) demonstrates
> that once new domains are introduced, "there will be widespread consumer
> adoption," he predicted.
>
>
> On 16/09/2009 22:00, "Robin Gross" <robin at IPJUSTICE.ORG> wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> The NCUC Annual Election is in progress and nominations have closed, and the
>> final ballot has been sent to the good folks at .nic for entering into their
>> online election system.
>>
>> Below is the final slate of candidates on the ballot.
>>
>> The voting period will begin 19 Sept. 2009 at 00:00 UTC.
>> The voting period will end 26 Sept. 2009 at 00:00 UTC.
>>
>> You should receive an email at the beginning of the voting period with
>> instructions on how to cast your votes.
>>
>> Candidates in the election are encouraged to submit a statement or bio to this
>> list (or to the website election page <http://ncdnhc.org/page/elections-1> ).
>>
>> I apologize for the delay regarding the dates of the online vote, but all is
>> in motion now, so look for your ballot in your email on Saturday (this
>> weekend).
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Robin
>>
>> NCUC Annual Election for 2009
>>
>> Voting Period: 19-26 September 2009
>>
>> SELECT 1 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REGION IN EACH REGION:
>>
>> NCUC Executive Committee (1-year term):
>>
>> Africa
>> Rafik Dammak
>> Alex Gakuru
>> David Kissoondoyal
>>
>> Asia
>> David Cake
>>
>> Europe
>> Konstantinos Komaitis
>> Cedric Laurant
>>
>> North America
>> Brenden Kuerbis
>>
>> South America
>> Gabriel Pineiro
>> Carlos Affonso de Souza
>>
>> SELECT 1 GNSO COUNCILOR FROM ANY REGION
>>
>> GNSO Council (2-year term):
>> Rafik Dammak (Africa)
>> Konstantinos Komaitis (Europe)
>> Wendy Seltzer (North America)
>> Rudi Vansnick (Europe)
>>
>>
>> SELECT 1 CONSTITUENCY CHAIR:
>>
>> NCUC Chair (1-year term):
>> Robin Gross
>>
>>
>>
>> APPROVAL OF CHARTER REVISIONS:
>>
>> Do you approve of the NCUC Charter revisions proposed by the Executive
>> Committee? Viewable at:
>> http://ipjustice.org/ICANN/NCSG/NCUC/NCUC-Charter-Revisions-Sep-09.pdf
>>
>>
>> 2009 NCUC Election Time-Table:
>> 4 Sept: Nominations opened
>> 12 Sept: Nominations closed
>> 19 Sept: Voting Begins 00:00 UTC
>> 26 Sept: Voting Ends  00:00 UTC
>> 31 Oct: Term Begins
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> IP JUSTICE
>> Robin Gross, Executive Director
>> 1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
>> p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
>> w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>